Buying by numbers – some items are there to be bought singly; some to be part of a prescribed collection. It’s not something I notice until the pattern breaks.
At college I had a friend whose money management manqué would occasionally see him head off to a particular corner shop where life’s essentials – eggs, cigarettes – could like the unsuspecting wildebeest, be separated off from the normal herd of dozen or half, 10 or 20 and sold singly.
This weekend saw me break the ‘mato numinci code. I purchased just 2 tomatoes and was of a mind to make it 1. I don’t think the transparent supermarket veg bag has ever been torn from the roll for so little cause. 1 or 2 to a bag – goldfish from the hoopla stand – yes, tomatoes – no.
The reason–Budgen’s anaemic offering at £3 per kg. I know tomato buying in the winter months is all about disappointment and high prices but these seemed to hit a new low/high. So I bought just 2; 180g @ 54 pence.
And yet they get to feature in The Tomato Sandwich. Brown bread ‘buttered’ with Hellman’s, grated cheddar and sliced tomato. Cut into Battenberg squares; served with a mug of tea on the side.
For today is the Swan Song for the Sunday Sandwich. I’ve enjoyed tasting what, within the confines of our daily bread, I can pair with ‘team tomato’ but, like the returning, dust sprinkled, weary traveller, who concludes home is best, for me Cheese & Tomato is the ‘home fires burning’ of sandwiches.
So from next week instead of slicing, I’ll be stoking up and ‘cooking’ with tomatoes for a more substantial Sunday offering.
And of course, returning to purchasing my tomatoes in shoals.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Cheese and tomato sandwiches are a timeless classic, although I like a little finely-chopped red onion in mine.
A shoal of tomatoes – that sounds a little fishy to me. *lol*
Now that’s where we differ…. I’m afraid I resist onion in a sandwich – even if it’s the refinely chopped red one….I have a friend who grew up in a family where you couldn’t call a sandwich a sandwich unless it had big hoops of onion to hold one layer of bread proud of the other but in mine the only time onion got though the door would have been thro’ inclusion in paxo stuffing mix and that wouldn’t have been often – so I’ve been a slow onion adopter and in a sandwich would be a swing too far !!
I also like The Timeless Classic toasted – especially if there is some coleslaw on the side -yes ! but the onion’s safely blanketed in mayo !